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"Ever wonder if City Council is as contentious and chaotic as it is sometimes portrayed? Here you can get a progressive perspective on some of the issues from someone who spent four years in the trenches. Totally unbiased, though!Feel free to comment but keep it respectful, just like they do at council."

Monday, March 4, 2013

Allegations in black and white

Monday was quite a colourful day.

To start it off, one of the first
voices I heard this morning was that of Councillor Sandy White
stating, “I don't feel safe putting myself in this person's hands.”

That sure caught my attention. Whatever
was she talking about? I was aware of her resignation from the London
Transit Commission on the basis of a disagreement about appropriate
advertising on city buses, but who was “this person”?

The statement was made on CJBK's Steve Garrison Show via telephone. I'm not sure why Garrison called White
but apparently it was in connection with a Toronto Star story about
allegations by some former employees of harassment by of the Ontario
ombudsman, Andre Marin. I quickly checked the Toronto Star online,
but couldn't find a thing.

Then White's comments became more
bizarre. She has a black child, she pointed out. And so does Denise
Brown. And Councillor Harold Usher is black.

Actually, Usher is more brown than
black, but the ombudsman could make that observation for himself when
he comes to London to investigate the complaints of 34 Londoners about the meeting at Billy T's. In fact, he probably already knows, since he
interviewed members of council last year when the mayor and some
members pulled their little Harmony stunt. But how could the fact
that the children of White and Brown are black be of any interest to
the ombudsman?

It would have helped if Garrison had
been clearer about the source of his information. He mentioned that
the story came from the Star and Canadian Press and pointed out that they contained allegations from a couple of former staff members
of the ombudsman that they had been harassed by the management in the
Ombudsman's office. Only near the end of the interview did he reveal
that the information had been sent to him in an email. From whom, we
don't know. He did say, however, that this was causing quite a stir
on council that morning. So my guess is, he received it from a
councillor.

Was it White? Who knows. In fairness to
White, she did eventually mention that the story was several years
old. Then she threw in, for good measure, the observation that the
ombudsman had been fired by the Sudbury council.

It took me a few minutes to track down
the sources. Both stories were originally published in May of 2010.
Andre Marin's contract as ombudsman was up for renewal and he hadn't
been making many friends within the Liberal caucus of McGuinty's
government. There had been plenty of reports of government waste and
mismanagement, even before the revelation about gas plants and Ornge.
Marin doesn't usually pull his punches.

So, according to the opposition
parties, a group of Liberals had embarked on a smear campaign to
discredit Marin. Premier McGuinty refused to discipline them although
he suggested they tone it down a bit. There were complaints to the
media about Marin's spending on travel and offices, and although he
was eventually re-hired by an all-party committee, the Liberals on
that committee had opposed the re-appointment. You can read the
Canadian Press story here.

The Toronto Star story followed a few
days later. It pointed out that there had been two allegations of
racial discrimination by former employees of the Ombudsman's office
which normally has a staff of 85 or so people. Those allegations had
gone to the Human Rights Commission and have not yet been resolved.

The complaints themselves are not
unusual. Resentment of a dress code. Criticism of work habits. Being
required to participate in a performance improvement seminar. Not
being provided with a dedicated sick room.

These were identified by the
complainants as harassment by management. Because they happened to a
member of a visible or ethnic minority, they were regarded as racial
discrimination. Another complaint was from a woman who was
approaching retirement; she described her experience as age
discrimination.

These matters have yet to be decided by
the Commission, but they seem pretty tame to someone like me who has
spent some time in representing workers in grievance hearings. For
his part, Marin acknowledges that he has overhauled the office of the
Ombudsman. His emphasis is on productivity. He's a hard worker and
expects others to be so as well.

The fact that these “news” items
were being trotted out on the Steve Garrison Show, and later the Andy
Oudman show, suggests that the participants in the Billy T's tete a
tete—the mayor, Steve Orser, Dale Henderson, Paul VanMeerbergen,
Joe Swan, Bud Polhill and, yes, Sandy White herself, are a little
more worried about the outcome of this new investigation than Orser's
“I'll have din-din with whoever I want” would suggest. Why else
set out to discredit the person doing the investigation via Newstalk
radio?

As for the firing of Marin by Sudbury city council, every council has the right to hire its own
investigator if it doesn't mind spending the taxpayers' money. But
perhaps the community is not all that eager to pay the costs of a
council that is uncooperative. In fact, when the item appeared on the
agenda for its council meeting last week, at least 150 citizens
showed up to boo the council as it voted 9-4 to replace the ombudsman
with someone of their own choosing.

Some of the councillors discounted the
public response. They hadn't had that many emails (at least 50, said
the mayor), just flack from the bloggers. Like Councillors White and
Orser, they didn't seem too keen on bloggers.

But their mayor, who had voted against
the motion, predicted trouble ahead. The people didn’t like it.

Still, that seems to be the direction
that some would like this council to take. White said that she would
be talking to the city clerk later that day about raising an enquiry
at council on Tuesday. She wasn't clear what form that enquiry would
take. Perhaps an emergent motion.

That would take the support of two
thirds of council just to get on the floor. When seven of them can't
even agree on whether or why they were meeting and how they happened
to be in a private room on the outskirts of the city at the same time
(some having entered by the back door), I wouldn't wager my income
from this blog for the chance of its success.

But it could be the first test of the
solidarity of the Fontana 8 since the budget.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

What has allegations of racial discrimination got to do with the Ombudsman investigating this supposed meeting at Billy T's? Yes, this bunch are more worried than they let on and are trying to stop the Ombudsman investigating any way they can think of no matter how stupid the reasonings are becoming. Fontana and his gang are becoming more and more moronic and stupid as time goes on. It is not even funny anymore.

I'm surprised that this bunch of dummies has enough brain power to be worried about what mere taxpayers might think about their latest secret and probably illegal meeting. It's clear they couldn't organize a two-car parade.

The fact that Sargent-at-Arms Orser stood guard for part of the proceedings indicates they knew they were doing something wrong.

I hope that Bud Polhill got all the help that he needed to plan a family party from his mayor and other councillors. Still, if he can't pull off a family party without council support if makes me worry about how good a manager he is.

Sandy White's histrionics are very tedious. And Steve Garrison could have done real reporting instead of just knee jerk muck raking. If a radio station with a news team can't dig up the background on the Marin accusations that you did, Gina and get that into the conversation also, then it says a lot about the kind of talk radio they are promoting.

Too bad that people from the Mayor, Swan, White and more down to Steve Garrison and Andy Oudman care so little for the community. What is taking place now will affect us for decades to come. But arrogance, egos, self interest and greed seems to rule the day.